What do you think?
Rate this book
The Range Rules
Not yet published
Expected 5 Oct 26When Ryan and Shawn Sullivan’s socially ambitious father enrolls them in the prestigious Novato Towne School for Boys, the brothers unwittingly uncover the strange legacy of Charles Steven Kaye, a student who, expelled two decades prior for “lewd and disgusting acts,” became the notorious and universally reviled queer pornographer John Dark. Obsessed with the enigmatic figure of Dark, Shawn rejects the stifling expectations of his upper-class upbringing, leaving his affluent family home and disappearing into the underground queer scene in California. Ryan follows his older brother into this hidden world, seeking to capture Shawn’s life on film and make sense of his unravelling.
Set against the backdrop of a parole house, to which Ryan was released after three years in jail, The Range Rules is a daring, defiant, and darkly wondrous exploration of transgressive queer pornography, prison culture, twelve-step recovery, and a search for redemption, connection, and compassion in spite of the invisible laws that govern our lives.
Set against the backdrop of a parole house, to which Ryan was released after three years in jail, The Range Rules is a daring, defiant, and darkly wondrous exploration of transgressive queer pornography, prison culture, twelve-step recovery, and a search for redemption, connection, and compassion in spite of the invisible laws that govern our lives.
340 pages, Paperback
Expected publication October 5, 2026
About the author
Darren Greer
9 books26 followersDarren Greer is the author of five novels and a book of essays. His novel Still Life With June was the winner of the 2004 Relit Award in Canada, a top three finalist for the Ferro-Grumley award in Manhattan, and was nominated for the Pearson Canada Readers’ Choice Award.
His novel, Just Beneath My Skin, was short-listed for the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, the 2015 ReLit award, and won the 2015 Thomas H Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. His novel Advocate was short-listed for the 2017 Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the 2017 Ferro-Grumley Award and won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award. His latest novel Outcast was released October 1st, 2018.
His novel, Just Beneath My Skin, was short-listed for the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, the 2015 ReLit award, and won the 2015 Thomas H Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. His novel Advocate was short-listed for the 2017 Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the 2017 Ferro-Grumley Award and won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award. His latest novel Outcast was released October 1st, 2018.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
✰ 3 stars ✰
The Range Rules read like a dra-mystery. One which had multiple plot lines that unfortunately made it difficult to be wholly immersed in any one of them. I knew tragedy was imminent for the infamously doomed Shawn Sullivan, but what compelled me to continue this heavy nonlinear narrative was the need to know how and why it would occur.
But, as much as I was engrossed, I also found myself a bit lost at how the time and setting would shift so suddenly. It was a bit disorienting, especially when it never offered a clear-cut indication of when Ryan was serving his prison sentence or his parole time, or even his school years - so I had to figure it out on my own. Some details also felt unnecessarily extra until they came about to explain a certain character's behaviors, which I also felt like a disservice to what he went through.
“You can’t shoot the world and apologize to it at the same time.”
The writing had a certain cinematic feel to it, which, in hindsight, makes sense, considering how photography and filming were their passions and what ultimately led to their relationship falling apart, as Shawn became further enthralled by the raptures of John Dark's seedy films, the seductive allure of something adventurous and euphoric, heightened by his own Obsessive Love Disorder.
I think it would have helped if there had been more scenes dedicated to showcasing the closeness of Ryan and Shawn's brotherly bond. I felt Ryan's grief over Shawn's loss; I did. But I did not feel the intensity of his Prolonged Grief Disorder, in which he was so drowned in sorrows over his regret at his failure for not being there for his older brother during the unfortunate years he was trapped with John Dark.
“I hate you,” I said.
“Everything,” Dark said calmly, as if I had not spoken at all, “is more beautiful because we are doomed.”
John Dark, a sadistic messiah, represented the heinous, vulgar side of the queer porn industry that was more shocking in the early 2000s than it is now. But I was not a fan of how the author portrayed the "villain" at the last stage. True, it was to rid him of the enigma he was, that daunting hunger. But it also carried a slight forgiving tone to him that left me with an unpleasant, and not entirely satisfied taste.
You really do have to have patience and tolerance to read Ryan's untold story. It's an uncomfortable, heartbreaking road of recovery and closure that he longs to heal from his untamed wounds. What helps is seeing how he grows and gains from what he learned and lost from Shawn's sad and broken self-sacrifice. It's retracing those forgotten steps that show just how heartbreaking a loss it is to see such a vibrant life, so sadly dimmed out.
“The only way to learn a range rule was to break it.”
The Range Rules read like a dra-mystery. One which had multiple plot lines that unfortunately made it difficult to be wholly immersed in any one of them. I knew tragedy was imminent for the infamously doomed Shawn Sullivan, but what compelled me to continue this heavy nonlinear narrative was the need to know how and why it would occur.
But, as much as I was engrossed, I also found myself a bit lost at how the time and setting would shift so suddenly. It was a bit disorienting, especially when it never offered a clear-cut indication of when Ryan was serving his prison sentence or his parole time, or even his school years - so I had to figure it out on my own. Some details also felt unnecessarily extra until they came about to explain a certain character's behaviors, which I also felt like a disservice to what he went through.
“You can’t shoot the world and apologize to it at the same time.”
The writing had a certain cinematic feel to it, which, in hindsight, makes sense, considering how photography and filming were their passions and what ultimately led to their relationship falling apart, as Shawn became further enthralled by the raptures of John Dark's seedy films, the seductive allure of something adventurous and euphoric, heightened by his own Obsessive Love Disorder.
I think it would have helped if there had been more scenes dedicated to showcasing the closeness of Ryan and Shawn's brotherly bond. I felt Ryan's grief over Shawn's loss; I did. But I did not feel the intensity of his Prolonged Grief Disorder, in which he was so drowned in sorrows over his regret at his failure for not being there for his older brother during the unfortunate years he was trapped with John Dark.
“I hate you,” I said.
“Everything,” Dark said calmly, as if I had not spoken at all, “is more beautiful because we are doomed.”
John Dark, a sadistic messiah, represented the heinous, vulgar side of the queer porn industry that was more shocking in the early 2000s than it is now. But I was not a fan of how the author portrayed the "villain" at the last stage. True, it was to rid him of the enigma he was, that daunting hunger. But it also carried a slight forgiving tone to him that left me with an unpleasant, and not entirely satisfied taste.
You really do have to have patience and tolerance to read Ryan's untold story. It's an uncomfortable, heartbreaking road of recovery and closure that he longs to heal from his untamed wounds. What helps is seeing how he grows and gains from what he learned and lost from Shawn's sad and broken self-sacrifice. It's retracing those forgotten steps that show just how heartbreaking a loss it is to see such a vibrant life, so sadly dimmed out.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the ARC in exchange for a review.
———
Review to come
———
Review to come
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews